Hughes Hightails It Back To CAA… Key Meet For MCA

His yo-yoing between CAA and ICM has raised eyebrows about what the mercurial filmmaker will do next. Hughes initially left Creative Artists Agency Dec. 22 and entered into talks with International Creative Management. The following week, he joined hands with ICM, with an announcement Dec. 29 to the trades made by ICM in conjunction with Hughes and his Chicago-based Hughes Entertainment.

Then suddenly Hughes changed his mind. On Jan. 5, Hughes’ attorney Jake Bloom called ICM and told them Hughes was returning to CAA. The story running through ICM was that the filmmaker was not happy with quotes from Jeff Berg that were picked up from the trades and reprinted in Chicago papers – the hometown news. It’s not clear which quotes those were. Maybe Variety readers can figure it out. The nominees are:

A) “The locomotive driving his reputation will be his movie business, but he does have other interests.”

B) “We represented John in the mid-1980s, during which period he did three back to back films – ‘The Breakfast Club,’ ‘Sixteen Candles’ and ‘Weird Science.’ I think we played a part in the formation of his directing and producing career.”

C) “It’s a very important piece of business for ICM.”

D) “John has achieved remarkable success in the film industry. We look forward to working with him in this highly productive period of his career. Our activity on John’s behalf will also extend to television, music and publishing – each of which is an area of strong interest to John.”

The other story making the rounds is that Hughes did not want ICM to announce that he had signed with them, and they forced the issue.

Many people in the industry think that Hughes only wanted – and got – the quick attention of CAA. Ron Meyer, CAA prexy, was able to lure Hughes back. Hughes will now be repped by Meyer and Jack Rapke, who repped him for 10 years.

Hughes would not comment.

Regardless of who represents him, Hughes has said that he does have other interests besides moviemaking, including television production and publishing.

The industry is also wondering what studio Hughes will settle down at – he currently has a deal at 20th Century Fox, but has worked with Warner Bros. and is eyeing Disney.